


Half the Story

by entanglednow



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-04
Updated: 2012-01-04
Packaged: 2017-10-28 22:40:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/312960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/entanglednow/pseuds/entanglednow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hank has the pieces, but he's damned if he can fit them together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Half the Story

Hank's a cop. He's not stupid.

He knows that Nick and the suspect from the little girl's kidnapping - Monroe - have been hanging around together. It's really not hard to notice after all, Nick isn't trying to hide it. It's not hard to notice the fact that Nick's been hitting the cases a little harder than usual lately either. He's been a little more determined, a little sharper, and Hank doesn't know if that's related. But, because Hank worries - no matter how much crap he'd get for it - he checks up on Nick's new friend, again, just to make sure.

He's kind of frustrated when he doesn't find anything.

Nick hasn't exactly had it easy lately, and Hank knows the shit that stress can make you do. So he does briefly wonder - and it weirds him out more than a little - if the guy, Monroe, is the reason Nick and Juliette split up. Because he's a cop, and he has to turn stuff, he has to look at it from every angle, even if it's a weird and off-kilter one he's not expecting. It's part of the job. But whatever's between them, it's not a social thing, at least not only a social thing. Hank notices pretty damn quickly how often the guy shows up places he shouldn't. Places he has no business being. He figures either Nick makes a point of calling him, or his partner has himself a determined stalker. He also accepts the possibility that the guy's blackmailing him. Though Hank can't imagine Nick's ever done anything bad enough to hide, and he barely makes enough to bother going to the trouble.

He tosses that theory completely out the window when Monroe meets Nick at the station one day. The guy looks tired and irritated, and half way through the conversation they have he looks no happier. But then Nick just smiles and smacks his hands into the guy's arms, and that gets him a long-suffering, exasperated expression that Hank can read well enough.

No, Nick's definitely the one who wants something from the guy.

Hank just doesn't have a clue what it is?

 

*****

 

The next time Hank sees the pair of them together, they're in the back yard of an angry, ex-beauty queen, trying to find her before she drowns a member of the high school swim team.

Nick's standing by the fence, and Monroe is right next to him, folded in like he wants to be anywhere else. But then Nick says something, something pleading and stupid, Hank knows the body language. But instead of throwing up his hands and walking away, the guy puts himself right between Nick and the alley that leads to the pool. Which is a weirdly protective gesture - and then he's waving his arms, and miming something that looks like a damn shark. But Nick just leans in, all the way into the guy's personal space, and lays a hand on his arm. Hank can't see him properly from this far away. But he knows that Nick's doing the eyes. The stupid, pleading eyes with the ridiculously long eyelashes - and the guy just caves. He folds like wet paper, and whatever Nick wants he's clearly gotten. The kid abuses that power something fierce. But Hank's never seen it work so quickly on someone before.

Hank doesn't remember a lot after that. At least nothing coherent, nothing after the swimming pool water started thrashing like it was boiling.

Nick tells him he hit his head fairly hard on the side of the pool. Which is as good an explanation as any as to why he can remember the nice Mrs Jefferson turning into some sort of fanged, squid creature, and trying to drag him under the water. Yeah, those concussion hallucinations are a bitch.

He remembers Mrs Jefferson looking wet and exhausted, when they led her away in handcuffs, protesting in low, hissed tones that the ones she had taken weren't human. Which is a line Hank's heard more than once. But Mrs Jefferson is strangely insistent. She tells Nick that he must understand why she did it. That they're the same. Hank doesn't have a clue what she's talking about, so he just chalks it up to crazy ramblings. Though he's a cop, so he doesn't miss the way Nick's eyes go angry-tight. The way he slams the car door, a little harder than necessary.

After that Hank's led away by a paramedic, who wants to poke at his concussion, and he's too busy wondering what he did to deserve it to notice when Nick leaves.

 

*****

 

Hank doesn't remember that he meant to bring it up until a week later. Nick meets him in a coffee shop across town. He looks tired and harassed, and there's a tear in the sleeve of his jacket. Hank figures whatever he's dealing with it has to be pretty big, and probably the reason he's taken a couple of days off work. Because it's not like him at all.

"You look like crap." Hank thinks that's pretty generous.

Instead of answering Nick pulls a face, and orders the biggest coffee they have.

"What's up with you, man?" Hank prods.

"I've been cursed to tell the truth," Nick says stiffly, and then laughs.

"Yeah." Hank winces, because he knows the feeling. "We all have days like that. Never know when to keep our mouths shut."

Nick laughs again, harshly, and then nods. It's clear he doesn't want to talk about that, so Hank leaves it alone.

"So, your guy -" Hank starts.

"Monroe," Nick says without looking up from his phone, and Hank eyeballs him for answering that question when he wasn't even half way through it. Seriously, anyone would think Nick's entire life revolved around the guy. Nick looks strangely uncomfortable now, teeth clenched.

"Yeah, I have to ask what's that about?"

Nick sighs and slides his phone to one side, so he can drink his coffee.

"He's kind of a werewolf, and he's helping me solve crimes committed by fairy tale creatures."

Hank eyeballs him for a long minute.

"You could have just said 'I'm not telling you,'" he complains. "You need to work on your communication skills."

"Last time I said that, someone bit me on the face," Nick says, them seems to realise he shouldn't have done. Hank can tell that's a whole other conversation he doesn't have the background to understand.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Half the Story [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3452063) by [tinypinkmouse_podfic (tinypinkmouse)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinypinkmouse/pseuds/tinypinkmouse_podfic)




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